Immediately after moving into our present house, bought this citrus ‘pomkan’ seedling…
Finally giving fruits for the first time… and only two fruits at that…
The taste was very good, I must say… and I surely look forward to more fruits next season…
This ‘mamba’ mustard green is a favorite among the Japanese folks living in Kagawa Prefecture…
I do not really grow it that often as my missus is not very excited about this veggie…
She says that it is a bit too ‘troublesome’ to cook it…
I don’t mind the taste, but it is quite bitter, actually…
Peanuts is a must for our potager…
I normally have them germinated in April and transplant them in May…
Come October, it is harvest time…
And the roots, I use them to make tea…
They give a very crisp, clear tea color, and I like the taste…
And yes, sweet potatoes are also another ‘must’ in our potager…
I grew three types of sweet potatoes this time, and wooh, sinking my fangs into their sweetness is really heavenly…
Our white ume has been flowering for some time…
Am always fascinated by their beauty, their softness…
And it is such a nice feeling to be able to have them as cut flowers, decorating our table…
This particular tree, after giving us the wonderful flowers, continue on to bear ume fruits for us …
Potager Y @ Japan 
Hello again Lrong! I love your new blog! It is so much alive 🙂
It has been quite a while since I last visited your blog. I’ve just realised that I have not migrated into your new blog, my apologies. Those white ume are simply gorgeous! Love them. The pomkan is making me crave for mandarin oranges which I will try to buy some tomorrow..lol!
By the way, happy CNY to you. Do you celebrate it over there?
Hi Ash… good to see you here… yes, I am sort of keeping my blog alive although I am not able to blog as often as I did before… that ume belongs to the rose family, and I find it quite intriguing to believe so… thank you for your wishes… rather unfortunately I have more or less lost touch with how celebrating CNY feels like… anyway, hope you had a good time during that celebration…
beautiful fruit, beautiful flowers 😉
Thank you Theanne…. hope you are keeping well…
As always your photos are stunning! I have never tried pomkan- is it like a mandarine orange? The comment above mentioned mandarine oranges. It does test our patience with fruit growing. I always want A LOT of fruit the first year + it never works that way-lol. I have to agree with your missus about the mustards. I have been using a thin frilled one lately in my salads which everyone likes a bit better. All your beautiful food makes me eager to get out in the garden, but it is 3 degrees tonight…( long sigh)..this is one of the longest winters, but spring will be here soon. I hear the birds singing in the morning + to me that means spring is near even if it is still snowing!
Hi Robbie… you are too kind with your comments… 🙂
pomkan is a Japanese bred orange… it peels very easily and has flesh that is firmer than the mandarin orange… I personally prefer the pomkan to the mandarin… 3 degrees? Woooh… I always feel so lucky whenever I see pictures of snow-covered fields… pretty no doubt, but I will not be able to survive under such a condition… and yes, I can’t wait for spring to come!
My mouth watered looking at your fruit photos! My momo has tiny buds but no flowers yet. I’ve noticed that the Sakura across the road also has little buds… A sure sign that spring is around the corner!!
Hahaha…. thanks for the laugh, Connie… momo flowers are also very pretty… I am on the lookout for their buds too…
Your ‘pomkan” reminded me of planting those from CNY oranges from China from seeds since 2012 and they are now about 3 feet only but dont know will they fruits?
Your Japanese yam made me think you are all very lucky to have such yams but here, I only have something that is pentagon in shape and reddish.
Happy CNY to you & missus – today is the last day of cNY 2014. 🙂
In Japan, legend has it that farmers used to curse the orange trees because when grown from seeds, they took about 20 years to start fruiting… these days, with marcotting techniques, perhaps 5 years… yes, I am thanking my lucky stars that I can plant some really nice varieties of sweet potatoes here… hope you a good time during the CNY…
You are such a good grower :-). Amazing photos and congratulations for all those beautiful harvest. I am going to grow lots of peanut and two different types of sweet potato this year. Do you have any tips on growing them successfully? Perhaps write a post with all the information. It’s interesting that you are using the roots of peanut for tea — things you learn everyday from garden blogs. It would have never occurred to me. So, do just break some root and boil and have it as a tea? Or do you do something else? Thanks.
Hello KL… you praise me too much… **wink… wink**
Tips on growing peanuts and sweet potatoes? Oh oh, I am at a loss here… Well, for peanuts, I germinate them first and then plant them right in the middle of the raised bed to allow the flowers to fall over to form the nuts… and for sweet potatoes, I just plant them and more or less let them be… doesn’t really count as too much of an advice, I am afraid (body cringing…)
As for the peanut root tea, I dry them under the sun… then, I soak the dried roots in water two or three times to clear the soil… then, I boil the root in a claypot over our wood stove… I let the pot cool through the night and drink them the next day…
One look at your pomkam, and I had an urgent urge to go downstairs to raid my fridge where i have lots stored. Your food produce is amazing. It looks like you lots of chemical to achieve commercial-like produce. Your sweet potatoes are plump and succulent. The radish and peanuts are harvested in abundance. It must be most pleasant to farm and garden in Japan.
No, I don’t use chemicals… sometimes, I do use a little fertilizer, but sparingly…. my veggies are actually very thin and under-nourished, I would say… and yes, it is quite pleasant to garden here in Japan….
Beautiful flowers, wish I have have an ume tree.
Thank you Mac… we cherish our ume plants a lot….
Hi there, I still want to learn more abt planting sweet potatoes in which yours were as big as those days my late DAD used to plant. Did u pull up the tendrils or leader shoot whenever the nodes grow the roots into the ground so that your potatoes were that big or how??? I was wondering why my potatoes were no more that big that I grow! What about your beds? Did u put in ashes/leaves/grasses to be embedded in the bed? Hope to read more of your advice. TQ
Hi Dew… actually, my sweet potatoes are not really that big… but yes, I do cut off the tendrils with a cutter… and yes too, but only sometimes, I do put leaves and grasses onto the beds… hope this helps… 🙂
Wow the peanuts! I tried to no avail to grow them in Melbourne, they flowered but then disappeared. Ah well not to be.
Hi Jo…. thanks for coming by… if I may suggest, perhaps the soil surrounding the plant is a bit too low for the flowers to fall over so as to be able to seed… no?
I confess this is a copy and paste message – but I want to get around as many nature and garden bloggers in the Southern Hemisphere as I can in a short time.
Through my blog Loose and Leafy a growing company of bloggers are choosing a tree and following it for a year. There’s a list of participants and a bit of information on our Tree Following page
By ‘following’ I mean observing when it does things, when things happen to it, the plants and creatures which grow on and around it . . . then posting what we see and linking up on 7th of every month. There’s a link box which will stay open for 7 days and you’ll find the March one here
Currently, though, we are all in the Northern Hemisphere and this strikes me as a bit unbalanced. It would be wonderful to compare notes with people whose trees are heading into autumn just as ours are sprouting new growth. And it would be good to have different kinds of trees too. Perhaps you would consider joining us?
Apologies for leaving copied-out comment but I hope, none the less, you will be tempted to join in.
Lucy
Lovely pictures and an insightful article!
Thnak you for coming by my blog!